Core forming press with tubular separating chamber



NOV- 24, 1970 KlyOsI-'u r-uxsl-umo'ro 3,541,641 y CORE FORMING PRESS WITH TUBULAR SEPARATING CHAMBER Filed June 4, 1968 y' -.2 sheets-sheet 1 FiyJ KlvosHl HASHlMoTo,

INVENTOR.

BY wwlfmmlnll VM. A

NV 24 1970YV KlYosHl HAsHlMoTo 3,541,54v1

CORE FORMING PRESS WITH TUBULAR SEPARATING CHAMBER Filed June 4, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 KIVOSHI HASHIMDTO |Mvi'li`nl?.

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United States Patent C U.S. Cl. 18-16 1 Claim ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A die is provided with a lower punch into the center of which a core rod is iixed. The device is operative to supply powder material to the die, press and compact the powder to the required size, discharge the compacted part by the flow of air, and empty the cavity of the die in order to supply the next powder.

The present invention relates to a core forming machine, especially for forming memory cores. More specically, the present invention relates to such a machine having a die plate with a cavity, and a positioner pivoted on the upper surface of the die plate and provided with a powder dispenser which cooperates with a die bushing of the die plate, an anvil and a compacted part pickup. A vacuum pump is connected with the compacted part pickup by a compacted part transporting hose. A compacted part separating tube or cyclone is located between the vacuum pump and the compacted part pickup and is provided at the upper end thereof with an air port connected with the vacuum pump. A compacted part inlet is connected with the said compacted part transporting hose and located at a certain position lower than the air port. At the bottom of the cyclone is located a compacted part outlet port which is closed tight when the vacuum pump is in operation.

In the forming of memory cores used in electronic apparatus such as electronic computor, a process has formerly been adopted using a powder hopper and an anvil pivoted on the upper surface of a die plate to oscillate thereof. Powder is supplied to al cavity in the die plate by the hopper. Then the hopper is removed from the die cavity and at the same time the anvil is positioned over the die cavity filled with the powder material. A lower punch in a die bushing of the die plate is raised, compacting the powder to the required shape. The compacted part is then raised from the cavity by the lower punch and moved by an edge of the hopper moving to the lling position of the next stroke. Under the said process only one part was produced per stroke and this resulted in low eiciency of the production. In view of this a new apparatus is developed recently to improve efficiency of the production by compacting the multitude of parts in single stroke. That isto say, it consists of a die plate provided with die bushings and lower punches into the centers of which core rods are lixed. A positioner oscillates on the die plate and is provided with a powder dispenser which supplies powder material to the cavities in the stroke of the positioner, an anvil which compacts powder in cooperation with the lower punches, a compacted parts pickup connected with the vacuum pump. First, the powder dispenser is positioned over the cavities to supply powder thereto. Then the powder dispenser moves aside from the cavities and the anvil is positioned over the cavities to compact the powder from both sides with the aid of the lower punches. Then the anvil moves from the cavities and the compacted parts pickup is posi` Patented Nov. 24, 1970 ICC tioned over the cavities. The lower punches are raised ejecting the compacted parts which are then lifted and held in the pickup by the ow of air caused by a vacuum pump. Finally, the powder dispenser is again positioned over the cavities to supply powder in the next stroke, while the pickup holding the compacted parts in it moves aside from the cavities to be located over a container for the compacted parts, and the compacted parts are blown into the container by reversed flow of air sent from the Vacuum pump. Under the above mentioned process the multitude of the compacted parts were continuously produced. However this conventional apparatus had the following demerits.

This conventional apparatus is a complicated mechansm and is troublesome to manufacture. Moreover, the process of discharging the compacted parts was extremely unstable in the following respects. In the lirst place, the compacted parts were at first held in the pickup by the flow of air caused by a vacuum pump, then blown into the container by the reversed flow of air sent from the same vacuum pump. Thus the use of the same vacuum pump both for lifting and blowing the compacted parts often fails in blowing the compacted parts accurately into the container and results in about 20 parts damaged per 1000 parts produced. Secondly, blowing the compacted parts into the container and supplying powder to the cavities of the die plate by the powder dispenser are carried at the same time and before the anvil is positioned over the cavities to compact the powder. Thus, the pickup passes over the cavities and the remaining ow of the air which has blown the compacted parts in the former position blows olf the powder in the cavities, resulting in a variation in the weight of the parts which had an extremely bad influence on the characteristics of the parts. Also, while discharging the compacted parts, the powder blown around the vcavities was sucked together with the compacted parts and choked the air iilter of the vacuum pump, thereby limiting the flow of air.

An object of the present invention is to overcome these disadvantages of the conventional core forming machine and to provide a new type of core forming machine which is able to produce steadily compacted parts such as memory cores of good quality which has a simple mechanism and which is easy to manufacture and to operate.

The construction of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. l is a schematic illustration of the operation of the apparatus according to the present invention to compact powder; FIG. 2 is a plane view of the die plate of FIG. 1; FIG. 3 is an enlarged cross-section of the essential parts for supplying powder material to the cavities of the die plate; FIG. 4 is an enlarged cross-section of the essential parts compacting the powder; and FIG. 5 is an enlarged crosssection of the essential parts discharging the compacted part from the cavity. In these views, 1 shows a die plate and 2 a die bushing installed in the die plate 1 and provided with a lower punch 4 into which the core rod 3 is fixed. The head of core rod 3 is positioned at the level of surface 1 of the die plate, and the lower punch 4 is raised or lowered along this core rod 3. 5 shows a positioner which oscillates on the surface 1 of the die plate 1 between Sa and 5b in a circular arc C shown in the ligure. 6 shows a powder dispenser, 7 a powder supply pipe connected with a powder tank which is not shown in the figures, 8 an anvil, 9 a compacted part pickup, and 10 a compacted part transporting hose. 11 shows the cyclone or a vertically extending tubular separating chamber at the top end of which the air port 12 is opened into the vacuum pump 13, 14 an air lter, 15 the bottom of the cyclone or tubular separating chamber 11, 16 a sliding valve, 16a an outlet port for the compacted port, and 17 and 17a the guides. 18 shows an inlet port for the compacted part which is located at a certain height lower than the above-mentioned air port 12 and higher than the discharging port at the bottom.

In the apparatus provided with the above-mentioned construction according to this invention, the powder dispenser 6 is positioned over the die bushing 2 installed in the die plate 1 and supplies powder material 19 to the die bushing 2 while the positioner 5 is located at 5a. As the positioner 5 moves to 5b, the anvil 8 is positioned over the die bushing 2 filled with powder 19 which is conipacted by the lower punch 4. Then the positioner 5 moves to 5c, and the compacted part pickup 9 is positioned over the die bushing 2 containing the compacted part 20. The compacted part 20 then is raised by the lower punch 4 from the die bushing 2, sucked into the compacted part pickup 9, transported through the hose 10, and then driven through the inlet port 18 into the cyclone 11 by the flow of air sucked by the vacuum pump 13. If the bottom 15 of the cyclone 11 is closed tight and the powder compacting machine according to this invention is in operation, the4 flow of air enters through the compacted part transporting tube into the cyclone 11 and is sucked through the air port 12 by the vacuum pump 13. Thus, the compacted part which was driven through the inlet 18 into the cyclone 11 by the ilow of air, falls down to the lower portion of the cyclone 11 under the action of gravity. The compacted cores gathered in the lower portion of the cyclone 11 are discharged easily by moving the slide valve 16 to adjust outlet port 16a to the bottom of the cyclone 11.

As mentioned above, in the present invention the discharging of compacted parts from the die bushing is carried out only by the suction of the vacuum pump, and does not need blowing as is the case in prior art devices. This results in stable discharging of the compacted parts. Moveover, the compacted part and the powder scattered around the die bushing are sucked into the cyclone, where they fall down to the bottom and are accumulated under the action of gravity, during which time the only ow of air is suction due to the pumping through the air port open at the upper end ofthe cyclone. Thus, the air lter is isolated both from the tine powder and from the compacted parts, thereby excluding the least possibility of choking 4 of the air filter and in extremely stable production of compacted parts.

What is claimed is:

1. A machine for forming compressed bodies from powder material, comprising a die plate having at least one die opening therein, die means movable in said die opening in a direction transverse to the thickness of said die plate and from within the plate toward a surface of the plate and adapted to mold the bodies, an oscillating head movable across the surface of said die plate to three positions, said head having powder supply means which is positioned over said die opening at the rst position of said head, an anvil means positioned over the die opening at the second position of said head, and a body removal means positioned over the die opening at the third position of said head, said body removal means having a downwardly open hood positioned over the die opening in said third position of said head, a tube extending from said hood, and a vertically extending tubular separating chamber having an air suction port at the upper end thereof and air suction means connected to said air suction port and having the body removal opening at the bottom thereof with a horizontally slidable valve means therein which can be opened for removal of bodies collected at the bottom of said separating chamber, said tube from said hood opening into said separating chamber near the top thereof and at a level sufficiently below said air suction port that bodies sucked into said separating chamber will not be drawn upwardly into said air suction port.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,541,357 6/1925 Johnson 18-165 X 2,127,994 8/1938 Davis et al 18-16.5 X 2,338,491 1/1944 Cutler 18-16.5 2,744,286 9/ 1956 Carpenter et al. 18-2 X 3,052,919 9/1962 Rayburn 18-16 3,328,840 7/ 1967 Vinson 18-16 3,382,540 5/1968 Van De Maden et al. 18-16 J. HOWARD FLINT, JR., Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 18-2 

